Speeches by Pinto-Duschinsky.

“I will push you, David, a tiny bit because that is broad—that is saying all central Government data. Again, coming back to minimum viable product, clearly, as Fabian has previously outlined, there is a huge difference between health data, for which there are rightly high barriers to sharing, and other forms of data. Ag…”

“I start by declaring an interest as a proud member of the GMB and Unison unions. This is a debate about four numbers: 3 million, £1,400, £2,500 and 10 million. Three million is the number of people who will benefit from the fantastic measures being announced today; £1,400 is how much they will benefit—a real life-chang…”

“Given that the right hon. Member’s belief is so strong, will she enlighten me on whether she voted to strip child benefit from certain families, as was Conservative policy? That was a universal benefit.”

“I start by thanking my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West (Dr Arthur) for raising this deeply important issue. I know that I speak for everyone here in finding his words about his father-in-law, and the story of Kira, very moving. I join him in welcoming Kira’s family. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the M…”

“Could the hon. Gentleman enlighten me on a slight confusion I have with the wording of his Bill? The Government are talking about bringing more of these agencies back under Executive control so that the Executive, elected by the British people, can drive their performance. His Bill would provide direct parliamentary co…”

“Will the hon. Gentleman give way?”

“Is there a brand issue as well? People talked earlier about preparedness and soft skills. Everyone is aware that Jobcentre Plus exists, so in that sense there is quite high awareness, but then they do not use it. Some of that is just that the job boards and so on are closest to hand, but is there also a brand issue the…”

“That is a really clear message about the importance of having staff who understand the labour market, are connected, understand requirements and then do follow-up. The other thing that struck me, Jane, from what you said was the gulf between large employers, who are often trying to do scale recruitments and so will try…”

“You brought a smile to my face, Elizabeth, because I was for many years a trustee of the St Giles Trust. It is fantastic to hear that its good work continues. We have heard a lot about intermediaries. At one level that is fantastic; at another level, I have to say that we have been having this conversation for 25 years…”

“That is fine.”

“Thank you both for that. If I step back from what you are saying, it sounds like the experience with the jobcentre fundamentally is driven by the degree to which you find individuals who are much more demand-led and start from employer’s requirements and actively work back and think about the match, but that is very ca…”

“There is quite a big gap between that, which is a general, “How you best engage business?”, and something sufficiently tailored that it helps individual businesses and makes it attractive. Is that fair?”

“Thank you so much, Jane and Saira, for coming in. We heard earlier about the academic take on the strengths and areas of potential improvement for Jobcentre Plus, but employers are some of the key actors in this. Ultimately, it is a brokerage service that is trying to help you find the right employees and help them mov…”

“It has been really interesting listening to you. For me it is a bit of a case of back to the future. I worked on exactly these issues, terrifyingly, 27 years ago. One of the really striking things is that you are mentioning now many of the same themes that came up then. One of the big themes that was very current then …”

“That is fantastic. Thank you.”

“Does the FCA want to add anything on that?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you. How many providers and schemes have applied to defer connection and how many of them have received a response?”

“Thank you for explaining your role in the ecosystem and how you are working with other institutions. The initial staged deadline for connection to the dashboard ecosystem was replaced last year with a single deadline of October 2026, although the Government subsequently issued guidance on when different providers could…”

“I suppose that is part of the question I am asking. I think there is a broad industry consensus around the need for something like this. The question is: what are the issues they are raising around how regulation is affecting them and how it is being done? Are there any particular issues they are raising consistently?”